


The Legend of Castiel: The Wayward Avatar

by the_diggler



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Canonical Character Death, Fluff, M/M, Season/Series 07
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-02
Updated: 2013-11-02
Packaged: 2017-12-31 05:54:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1028043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_diggler/pseuds/the_diggler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A brief telling of the journeys and trials of Castiel – an airbending Avatar who is pursued by the evil waterbender Dick Roman, and eventually finds his place with the Winchester brothers – a firebender named Sam and his annoying earthbender brother, Dean. </p>
<p>[EXTENDED VERSION now being written by witchbreaker <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1728596">HERE at AO3</a>!!!!]</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Legend of Castiel: The Wayward Avatar

  
Castiel has been running his whole life. One of his earliest memories is of the attack on the Air temple, the screams and the sounds of fighting all around, and his Master pushing him out a secret exit, telling him to run – stay out of the sky, don’t use your air-bending, get as far away as you can and hide on the ground, _survive._

He’s too young to understand what the fighting is about, or why it’s important only _he_ should survive. He doesn’t yet know what it means to be the Avatar – the only one capable of bending all four elements, and forever reincarnated to bring balance to the forces of light and dark, good and evil. But he’s always followed his Master’s instructions, and to disobey is unthinkable. Even if he’d known it would be the last time he’d ever see his Master.

He doesn’t know how long he survives in the woods, living off fruits and flowers and nuts, but when Dick Roman finds him, Castiel is wretched and cold and too, too thin. He thinks it’s a kindness, at first, when Dick Roman takes him to his compound and feeds him, sheltering him within its heavily protected walls. He’s all too happy to learn water-bending from the man, who is clearly a powerful Master himself.

But then he tries to teach Castiel blood-bending – taking control of another being’s body through the manipulation of their blood. And even though Castiel has never heard of it before, or how forbidden it is, he can _feel_ how wrong it is. The monks at the Air temple taught him to value and respect life. And blood-bending feels like a violation, to those principles, and to himself. He realizes he’s been betrayed, all along, and he runs.

For a long time he wanders, alone, staying out of trouble but helping others in whatever small ways he can, as his first Master taught him, and as penance for what his second Master taught him. Sometimes people are so grateful, they give him food and supplies for his travels. He never stays in one place for too long, for fear of endangering the people around him if Dick Roman comes looking for him.

Eventually he comes to the aid of two traveling brothers, an earth-bender and a fire-bender, on a mission of vendetta against the soldiers that destroyed their village and killed their family. Dick Roman’s soldiers. Soldiers that had been looking for the Avatar. Looking for _him_.

He doesn’t tell the brothers this, at first. The brothers mostly want to help people, although they’re a little more aggressive about it. And Castiel likes them. He figures their missions are similar enough, and as long as they keep moving, it should be safe enough. Maybe he’s just tired of being alone.

So he only uses his air-bending, for as long as possible, hiding who he really is. He gets along with Sam, a serious young man who he has many long conversations with. But it’s Dean who’s company he finds himself seeking out the most. They have little in common – Dean is cocky and stubborn, and too reckless when it comes to his own safety – and maybe it’s for that reason Castiel finds himself coming to Dean’s aid the most during the skirmishes they always seem to find themselves in.

In any case, it’s the reason he gives himself away in the end – when Dean becomes so badly injured during a battle, Castiel has to use his water-bending to heal his wounds.

Dean is furious.

Sam sees him as their salvation. The missing piece they’ve needed. A real weapon to defeat Dick Roman with.

Castiel doesn’t want to be a weapon.

So he runs, again.

Only this time, the further he runs, the worse he feels. It’s hard being alone again, after having had the steady presence of the Winchesters beside him for so long. For the first time in his life he thinks he experiences what it feels like to be homesick. He keeps seeing Dean’s face in his mind, the hurt and betrayal in Dean’s eyes, and it makes him ache. He wishes he hadn’t left things the way he did. 

But the more he thinks about it, the more he seems to run, until he is so miserable, and so lonely, he doesn’t think he has the will to run anymore. To run from _himself_ anymore.

And it’s then, when he’s at his lowest, that his past-lives find him. In a vision, he learns that previous Avatars could disable their adversary’s bending powers, by bending their life energy. It’s the perfect solution – defeating evil without violence or murder. But he still has to master all four elements.

With this new knowledge, Castiel rushes back to the Winchesters. Sam is ecstatic, and begins teaching him fire-bending almost as soon as he returns.

But Dean remains angry and sullen, and barely talks to him, no matter how many times he tries to apologize.

Castiel even asks Sam for help one day, trying to understand why Dean remains so angry with him. Sam explains that Dean isn’t so much angry, as he is _afraid_.

“Afraid of what?” Castiel wonders, because Dean is the one who always laughs in the face of danger, and always places the well-being of others before himself.

Sam doesn’t answer. He just gives Castiel a cryptic smile, leaving him even more perplexed than before.

The situation with Dean hasn’t changed by the time Sam is done teaching Castiel fire-bending, so Sam decides to take Castiel to their Uncle Bobby’s to learn earth-bending. Bobby is an old family friend who is such a powerful earth-bender, he can bend metal as well.

But when they get there, Dick Roman is waiting for them.

Bobby dies, helping them escape.

Dean is devastated. And then incensed. He decides that if the only way to bring Dick Roman down is to train Castiel earth-bending himself, then so be it.

It goes terribly.

Earth-bending is the most opposite element to Castiel’s natural air-bending, the most opposite in attitude and approach, and therefore the hardest for him to understand. And Dean is still so angry at him. Day after day, Dean assaults him with boulders and rocks that he can’t evade, effortlessly shattering them into dust at the last second or throwing up walls of stone to entrap him and frustrate him until they are screaming at each other at the top of their lungs.

“Running won’t work this time, Cas! You can’t hide from this or get around it! You have to face it head on!” Dean yells at him, over and over, until Castiel doesn’t know what Dean is talking about anymore.

“I know, Dean! I know! I’m trying as hard as I can!” Castiel snaps back one day. “What do I have to do for you to forgive me?!”

Dean slams him against the hard face of the mountain-side then, crowding in close and grabbing him by the collar. “Don’t _ever_ leave me like that again.” he snarls, before crushing their lips together in a brutal, _claiming_ kiss.

When he cries out Dean’s name, sometime later, Castiel shatters the mountain beneath them.

He never runs again.

  
_~ fin_

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'll say it again, if anyone wants to write a full-length version of this, I'd _love_ to read it! In fact, it didn't occur to me until after I wrote this, but I'd love to see Crowley in here somewhere as a firebender too, and maybe Raphael as a lightningbender... The possibilities are endless :D
> 
> [[tumblr crosspost](http://the-diggler.tumblr.com/post/61652324987/the-legend-of-castiel-the-wayward-avatar)]


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